Improve Your Sales Process: 4 Factors That Influence Decision Making

By using factors that influence customers during the decision making process, you’ll be able to close more sales and double your closing ratio. The purpose of the sales process is to convince customers that they will be better off with the product or service than they would be with the money necessary to buy the product.

Factors That Influence the Decision Making Process

During the sales process, you are asking customers to engage in a trade. You are telling customers that if they give you their money, you will give them a product or service in return that will be of greater value to them than the money they pay. In addition, it will be of greater value than anything else that they could buy with the same amount of money at the same time. Here are four factors of influence you must know in order to influence the customer’s decision making process:

Satisfied Needs

The customer always acts to satisfy the greatest number of unmet needs, in the very best way, at the lowest possible price. During the sale process, a major part of your job is to demonstrate that customers will get more of what they want, faster, by purchasing your product or service than they would get if they bought something else.

Credibility

One of the major factors that influence customer’s decision making process is credibility. Proof that the other people similar to the customer have purchased the product builds credibility, lowers resistance, and increases sales. Every bit of information that you can present showing that other people, similar to the customer, have already wrestled with this buying decision, have decided to purchase, and have been happy as a result, moves you closer to making the sale. One of the most powerful of all the factors that influence buying decisions in our society is called “social proof.” We are all influenced by what others have done or are doing. We are much more open to buying a product or service when we know that other people like us have already bought it and are happy with it.

Testimonials

Another one of the factors that influence customer’s decision making process are testimonials. Testimonials of any kind increase desirability and lower price resistance to a product or service. Testimonial letters or photographs of happy customers using and enjoying your product or service, or lists of satisfied customers, is one of the most powerful factors that influence a person to buy. You should persistently solicit testimonials from your customers. Acquire them from every source possible and every way you possibly can. Testimonials can make your sales process and ability to influence the decision making process much easier. You will find that almost all top salespeople use testimonials that praise and support the product or service they are selling and that are relevant to the customer they are selling to.

Perception and the Sales Process

The level of competence and expertise that a person perceives that you have, the more likely it is that that person will be persuaded by you to do the things you want them to do. A person who is highly respected for his or her ability to get results is far more persuasive and influential than a person who only does an average job.

The perception that people have of your performance capabilities exerts itself as one of the most important factors that influence how customer’s think and feel about you. You should commit yourself to being the very best in your field. Sometimes, a reputation for being excellent at what you do can be such a powerful decision making factor that it alone can make you an extremely persuasive individual in all of your interactions with the people around you. They will accept your advice, be open to your influence and agree with your requests.

Thank you for reading this post on powerful factors that influence customer’s decision making process. Please contribute your thoughts and feel free to share your tips on how to develop the sales process to close more sales!

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